Kade Auberon is Ryan Gosling’s new character in Star Wars: Starfighter. Lucasfilm describes him as a cynical rogue from the wrong side of the galaxy whose mysterious past sends him into a dangerous adventure. His fate is tied to the fastest starfighter ever built, and the standalone movie opens May 28, 2027. The D23 first look remains exclusive to the room, so there is still no public trailer.
Kade Auberon quick facts
- Actor: Ryan Gosling.
- Role: A cynical rogue and pilot from the wrong side of the galaxy.
- Ship: His fate is intertwined with the fastest starfighter ever built.
- Timeline: About five years after The Rise of Skywalker.
- Release date: May 28, 2027, in theaters.
- Public trailer: Not yet; the first footage was shown only to the D23 audience.
Lucasfilm used its D23 presentation to introduce Kade Auberon, the lead of Star Wars: Starfighter. Gosling described him as a man from the wrong side of the galaxy whose future becomes tied to the fastest starfighter ever built. A brief first look then played for the live audience.
That last detail needs a line around it. The footage was exclusive to the room. The official video posted by Star Wars shows Gosling and director Shawn Levy onstage, but it does not include the scenes D23 attendees watched. Any shaky clips circulating elsewhere are not an official trailer release.
Kade Auberon Is a Rogue With a Fast Ship
The name reveal came with the first real shape of a story. Lucasfilm’s synopsis calls Kade a cynical rogue whose mysterious past throws him into a dangerous trip across the galaxy. The ship is not just transportation: both Gosling’s description and the title make it part of his fate.
Gosling also changed into a character-inspired jacket marked with a skull-and-bones emblem. It is a small piece of costume language, but it fits the person Lucasfilm is presenting—a pilot with an outlaw edge, not a polished officer waiting for orders.
Flynn Gray appears beside Gosling in the first official production image, and he is part of a cast that also includes Amy Adams, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, and Daniel Ings. Lucasfilm has not attached character names to any of them yet. It would be easy to label Gray a sidekick from the image and footage reports; the studio has not done that.
Starfighter Moves Beyond the Skywalker Timeline
When Lucasfilm announced the film in 2025, it placed the story about five years after The Rise of Skywalker. That makes Kade a new lead living beyond the end of the sequel trilogy, not a younger version of someone audiences already know.
Levy has called it a standalone adventure in a period Star Wars has not explored on screen. He is directing from a script by Jonathan Tropper, his collaborator on The Adam Project. Levy and Kathleen Kennedy are producing, with Gosling among the executive producers.
The timeline gives the film room to acknowledge the galaxy left behind by Rey, Finn, and Poe without requiring their return. It also lets Lucasfilm build new factions, ships, and loyalties after the First Order. None of those connections has been announced. Kade’s story begins after the familiar saga, but Lucasfilm is presenting him as a lead who stands on his own.
The Car-Movie Influence Could Define the Action
Levy said American car culture, The Outsiders, and George Lucas’s American Graffiti influenced the film. That combination points toward speed, youth, found family, and a hero whose vehicle says something about him before he speaks. It also explains why the “fastest starfighter” line feels more specific than ordinary marketing. The ship may be the movie’s equivalent of a legendary car: freedom, danger, and identity in one machine.
Star Wars has always borrowed from other genres—samurai films, war movies, westerns—and the franchise is often liveliest when those influences are visible. A character-driven space adventure with car-movie energy could give Starfighter a personality that is not dependent on another Death Star, another secret bloodline, or another return from the original trilogy.
There is pressure behind that promise. Starfighter will be Lucasfilm’s next theatrical release after The Mandalorian and Grogu, a film Disney said fell short of its box-office expectations. A new title and a famous lead will get attention; Kade and his ship still have to give audiences a reason to care about unfamiliar corners of the galaxy.
Star Wars: Starfighter opens May 28, 2027, exactly 50 years and three days after the original Star Wars reached theaters. The name is official, the premise is clearer, and the first footage exists. Lucasfilm still has not released that footage for people outside D23.
